Week 15/ 16

We are finally coming to the very end of the semester and working hard to finish our marketing and distribution plan for our final presentation on Thursday, May 4th.  Kaelin and I have been talking about what we want for our website and what kind of design we're looking for.  I went ahead and opened a wix account and created a background picture on the site from Walton's distillery and make sure our color theme went with our film's yellow and brown tones to have unity between them.  Kaelin is coming over on Wednesday to put all of our content onto the website and create a facebook page.  Overall, this class has been a positive experience and I've been very lucky with the group members I was assigned.  We've learned together and created a film that we can be proud of for our senior seminar.

Week 14

This week we've been entirely focused on getting our final cut completed as well as beginning our marketing and distribution plan.  We met this week to discuss our marketing and distribution project and to divide the responsibilities equally for everybody.  Kaelin and I are in charge of the website and facebook page, Michaela is working on the festival roll out and budget, and Hannah is going to do the poster and post card.  Kaelin and I decided to create our website on wix for free.  I have experience using wix before and it's a very easy website platform for people who don't have a ton of experience creating sites (us!).  We plan to include different pages on our website to include crew bios, behind the scenes photos (using frame grabs from the film), a contact option, and film synopsis.  After we complete all the assignments for our presentation for our final in FST 495, we'll be done with the class and have the option to continue working with this film.

Week 12-13

The last two weeks we've been trying to stay organized and get everything done in time. This past week we've been focusing on getting our animations finished as well as editing some more.  We're trying to get our edit more concise and have more of a narrative flow. Hannah especially has been working diligently on our edit.  Our animator has sent us two animations to include so far and we're expecting a couple more from him soon.  Our edit is getting closer to what we're hoping for our final cut.  We don't plan on shooting anymore footage because there's not enough time but we think it'll be solid enough once we add the animations. We're going to have a meeting soon to discuss our final steps of our project. Our film is getting closer to being finished and we're excited to see what it is like as the final cut.

Week 11

This past week we had another shooting day and filmed a selected group of people taking different shots (illegal and legal) of moonshine to get their reactions.  It went really well and we had a variety of different people with interesting reactions.  We set it up in the backyard of Hannah's house and just had our participants come at different times.  Our friends loved getting free shots of alcohol and we loved getting their reactions taking them.  It was sometimes surprising who could handle a strong shot of moonshine versus who couldn't!  Hannah took the footage and edited it together with our interview footage and were trying to figure out where to organize each part of the film to make it cohesive.  This week we also spoke more to our animator and discussed with him what we envision for our film and showed him examples of animations from other films that we like to give him more of an idea of what we want.  This week I won't be in class because I'll be on another set shooting a commercial.

Week 10

This past week we focused on planning our next shoot in order to meet this week’s goal.  Hannah edited together our rough cut and made sure it will be ready to play in our next class. I’ve continued researching songs and whether or not they’re available for public use.  Our rough cut doesn’t include any of the song choices I have been considering just yet.  This past week we didn’t shoot anything else because our next shoot date is tomorrow (Friday) morning.  We’re having about six to seven friends that we’ve selected to come to Hannah’s house and take two different shots of moonshine (legal and illegal).  We want to film their facial expressions after they take the two shots and then ask them questions to see if any of them have had any past experience of moonshine, their general impressions, and any knowledge about moonshine. In order to take our film to the next level we also searched for an animator to create animations for us.  We actually had a few applicants but Hannah and Michaela went with the person they knew because they’ve seen his work in the past and think he’ll be able to give us the look we want.

Week 9

This past week we focused on figuring out what direction we want the film to take.  Hannah decided that she would like it to be focused on moonshiners and people who live/lived in a moonshining environment and what kind of effect it has had on their lives.  We will still be focusing on the friendly and warm culture that goes along with moonshining.  She also made a decision for what our title will be; Shiners.  For the past week we also discussed who we would like our next interview subjects to be.  We have a few friends in mind that Hannah and Michaela were supposed to get in touch with to plan interviews with.  Michaela reached out to her two friends who grew up in a moonshining household, Hannah contacted her friend who makes moonshine, and Hannah will also be asking my friend Alex if he would discuss growing up making moonshine.  We have also been planning for our film festival research and marketing assignment.  The local film festivals are on the top of our list since our topic has regional importance but there are a few in other states that could work that definitely have moonshining in their southern culture.  Our rough cut is due tomorrow and we have edited together clips to make sense on a timeline to get more of a narrative sense.

Week 8

It has been a while since we have had any new footage since this past week was spring break and we were all out of town and working so we were unable to plan any shooting.  Instead we split up work among ourselves to do at home.  Hannah and Michaela both worked on finding more potential experts and reached out to a few of them.  Michaela emailed the man who failed at opening a distillery in Wilmington and has yet to hear back from him.  Hopefully he responds so we can discuss with him why his distillery didn't open.  I researched a little more about the process of moonshine to learn more about how it’s made and compared it to what our expert showed us in person.  I also looked into the rights of some songs I’d like to use in our film. This past week I saw my friend Alex and he said his dad spoke with a friend at a distillery nearby Dunn, NC that agreed to speak with us.  It's a little further of a drive for us but if Hannah wants to we could interview him.  Alex's dad has been trying to help us find more people to speak to and has been super awesome! 

Week 7

Last Sunday our group took a trip to Dunn, North Carolina to interview one of our experts (who I will leave nameless) since he wished to be left anonymous. It could not have gone better! We were greeted with a home cooked meal to enjoy before we started shooting.  Which we did not expect because Alex forgot to tell us that his mom was cooking for us! The food was amazing. Afterwards we got started on making the moonshine and learning the process of distillation. Our expert walked us through his process and explained in detail what all of his equipment was. Some of the equipment was handmade along with items you can buy at a store. We were there all afternoon and the process took the entire time we were there and continued after we left. During the distilling we interviewed our expert and got great information on his history with making moonshine as well as the general history of the activity. And a few of his talking points brought up some of the things I found in my research so it was cool to have my research validated by him. He was an extremely easy expert to interview. He was very open, willing to talk, and knowledgeable on the subject of moonshine.

Week 6

For week 7 our group focused on accomplishing a few things. After shooting our interview and B-roll at Walton's distillery in Jacksonville we had a lot of footage to review and edit together for our B-roll and 3 minute interview footage due in class.  We all met in the editing lab and looked at the footage to organize the shots we liked and discard the ones we didn't.  I also went through the sound footage and organized the files according to what it was and if it was usable.  While we reviewed the footage we started to get more of a sense in what we want to do in editing our final cut.  So we now have more of an idea of what we want in our final cut. This past week we also thought about what other expert interviews we want to have. Hannah contacted the New Hanover county police department to see if we could interview someone about the consequences of illegal moonshining. Our expert interview, Don from Walton's Distillery, is also an attorney so he was able to give us some valuable information on the legality of moonshining but we still hope for more content on what can happen if underground moonshiners are caught.

Week 5

After last class we were able to get our shooting date at Walton's distillery finalized and had the confirmation to go. Since we got confirmation so last minute, I was not able to get my shift covered at work and didn't get to go shoot our interview in Jacksonville.  Instead I had the group keep me updated on everything that happened, worked on our sound design from home, and got the interview recordings from the group when they got back.  This last week I did more research on what music to use in my sound design to go with the culture of moonshining.  I focused on what regions produced the most moonshine and what kind of local music was being produced out of there to see if there was any relation.  I also listened and saved some of the more "classic" bluegrass hits that are listened to nationally.  It has been interesting to see how bluegrass has spread and grown a fan base with people who are not moonshining and that don't know anything about making it.  The interview seemed to go well according to what I heard on the sound recordings with Don. He's very knowledgeable and was eager to talk about the art of moonshine. I wish I could have been there to see it in person and buy some of his moonshine.

Week 4

This week we were able to accomplish a few more things to get our project on track. We have finalized shooting dates for interviewing experts and filming some B-roll.  On Friday we will be traveling to Walton's Distillery in Jacksonville to shoot B-roll and interview Don, the owner of the distillery.  He's going to be a great interview subject because he's not only the owner but also an attorney. So Don will be able to give us some good insight into the distillery work as well as the legal side of moonshine. I'm hoping he will give us new information on moonshining that we'll be able to look into further. This week I have also continued proposing shooting dates back and forth with Alex and his family.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for February 26th but do not have their confirmation on it yet.  Alex told me he will give me a final answer tomorrow. We were planning on shooting our B-roll on my Canon t5i but since we will have the opportunity to get an interview with Don, we went ahead and did a full equipment request. We got it approved and will be picking up our equipment tomorrow after class.

Class Presentation

This week in class we will be presenting our films to our classmates so this past week was in preparation of that.  We finalized a lot of our plans for the semester and have a clearer idea of what our production is going to be like. It's exciting seeing it come together! And as a person who is normally slaving away in the art department, it is a nice change being the sound mixer. I honestly wasn't too sure about it in the beginning but the more I'm learning about it, the more interesting it's becoming.  And in the grand scheme of things, our film would be silent if it weren't for me! This week I did some further research into the equipment I'll be using and tried to understand the benefits of them and how to use them. It'll be easier to understand once I get my hands on them. I've worked with the school's sound equipment only one other time about a year ago so I'll have to reteach myself but it should be easy to pick back up. Also, I created a sound design playlist on my Spotify that was inspired by my moonshine research. I was surprised to find that I enjoy Bluegrass.

Potential Experts / Questions

This past week our group accomplished a lot.  We finally nailed down our topic and what we would like to achieve.  We decided to proceed on the moonshine route. One of our biggest concerns while considering that topic was that we wouldn't be able to find any experts willing to speak with us since it is illegal to manufacture your own moonshine.  But I discovered that a friend of mine, Alex, comes from a family that has been making their own moonshine for a long time.  Under certain conditions, Alex's dad agreed to let us film him making moonshine as well as answering some questions from us about the process and the culture of moonshine.  I'm interested to see if Alex has any more family members, like grandparents, that have passed down this tradition in their family.

Possible Questions for Alex:
1. At what age were you taught how to make moonshine?
2. How often does your family make moonshine?
3. Is it a tradition passed on through your family?
4. If so, do you know how it got started in your family?
5. How long does it take to make moonshine?
6. Is it a bonding experience between you and your dad?
7. Why is making your own moonshine illegal?
8.  Do you plan on showing your kids how?
9. Is it a common practice in your community growing up to make your own moonshine?
10. Do you know the practice of how making moonshine all started?

Possible Questions for Ryan Person (Wilmington Whiskey&Spirits Co. Owner):
1. Why didn't your store open?
2. Is the process of opening a distillery difficult?
3. What is required to open a distillery?
4. Did it have anything to do with New Hanover County's legal resistance to alcohol?
5. What would have been on the menu?
6. Are you currently still trying to open the store?
7. Did you decide to open the store elsewhere?
8. Did you have any resistance from the government for opening your store?
9. If so, do you think it was partly because of the Turlington Act from 1923? (<---find out if Wilm is under the Act still)
10. What did you hope for the store if it had opened?

Documentary Research

So from my research i’ve found out more about Wilmington’s relationship with alcohol and the legality of it all. What’s interesting to me is how it seems to be a war between people who love alcohol (and brew it themselves) and the people who want it banned (prohibition).  In Wilmington there are a ton of breweries and people who make their own alcohol.  I think we can talk about the people who make their own alcohol, the culture that goes along with it. Another thing that crossed my mind was moonshine.  And I found out there was a shootout between the “most notorious” moonshiners on the carolina coast and the police over in Brunswick county that ended with the moonshiners being sent to the electric chair. (I’ll post articles about them too.) So overall I think we could talk about how prominent alcohol is in a port city community (leaving it open to port cities instead of only Wilm so that it has a more universal effect) even though there were many people in the past that were trying to prevent that from happening.

Top Articles to use:

http://www.starnewsonline.com/news/20100306/north-carolina-has-complex-history-with-liquor
This is the best article I’ve found so far.  There are so many people mentioned that we could possibly even get in touch with.  Also a lot of interesting stuff- like I didn’t know Wilm had a “feast of pirates”. Also, I heard about Carrie Nation on Drunk History the other night. She’s crazy.  I think there is a lot more to this topic than we thought!

http://www.myreporter.com/2009/05/cw-and-elmer-stewart/
Article about Charles William Stewart and William Elmer Stewart



http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/NC/20140320/News/605030720/WM/

Article about a Distillery trying to open in Wilm (back in 2014 so I need to look it up to see if it ever actually opened)

http://www.whiskyvrienden.nl/company.php?id=3837  This is the owner’s contact info. So far I can’t find anything about them ever opening so he may be someone to interview.

https://books.google.com/books?id=KYuDow4OEXwC&pg=PA207&lpg=PA207&dq=moonshiners+hanover+county&source=bl&ots=f8urdGQsfN&sig=9NUyuInUOyh8NfcOpU_81k36BYs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiM27-qgc3RAhXFeSYKHU8ZBI0Q6AEIKzAC#v=onepage&q=moonshiners%20hanover%20county&f=false

New Hanover county and alcohol

http://louistmoore.com/feast-of-pirates/

Super detailed article about the Feast of the Pirates which relates to our subject because this happened during prohibition...so they had an openly drunken parade in the streets of wilm while alcohol was illegal.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newcentury/5010

Short passage about NC Statewide Prohibition.

http://www.wwaytv3.com/2013/11/21/building-history-barbary-coast/

A short article about Barbary Coast which is the oldest bar in Wilm.  

BLOCKADE RUNNERS- ships that were used to reach Confederate sides with supplies sent from England and occasionally smuggled alcohol.

http://www.wilmingtonandbeaches.com/media/images/civil_war_paper.pdf

This explains Wilm’s history as a port for blockade runners.